More Images

Musicians rally to save Mrs. Hyatt's Music House

Karen Cogdill Reilly, the granddaughter of Neila Hyatt, looks over photos at Mrs. Hyatt's Music House Tuesday. Friends and family of Hyatt have started fundraising events to save the building, which is located on Brevard Road in Asheville.

MIKE DIRKS/TIMES-NEWS

By Beth BeasleyTimes-News Correspondent

Published: Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 4:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, February 1, 2013 at 3:30 p.m.

ASHEVILLE — Mrs. Hyatt's Music House, begun as an informal musical get-together in the 1940s, has persevered through the decades to become a world-renowned weekly gathering for bluegrass musicians.

Hosted at the Asheville home of Nelia Hyatt, now 95, the jam session venue is under threat of the wrecking ball unless funds can be raised to secure a new site and move the Music House structure.

"We are doing this for the community, to make sure my grandfather's legacy lives on," said Karen Cogdill-Reilly, the granddaughter of Wayne and Nelia Hyatt. "The music of the mountains is a pure music, and that purity will be lost if we lose a place like this."

Cogdill-Reilly and her husband, Evan Reilly, are spearheading a campaign over the next few months to save the longtime venue, with a chili cook-off and music event, a motorcycle poker run, and a battle of the bands.

A nonprofit organization has been started to help in the fight to preserve the music house, with a Facebook presence also being utilized for public awareness.

Nelia and the ‘birds'

Fiddlers, banjo players and singers still surround a smiling Nelia Hyatt at the jam sessions, for which she has been known to cook up entire Sunday dinners in the past for hungry musicians at the weekly Thursday evening gatherings.

She lovingly calls musicians "birds," enjoying having them gather and make beautiful music where she has lived for so long.

Hyatt's late husband, Wayne, launched the tradition in 1947, when a group of his fellow Southern Railway workers gathered for some informal music making at the couple's home on Brevard Road.

As time went on, word got out and the place, with its family-friendly environment, became legend — a place where bluegrass luminaries and novice players alike could gather for weekly jams.

Over time, the jams became so popular that they outgrew the Hyatts' living room and in the 1970s moved to the outbuilding Wayne Hyatt constructed, to create a place to "pick outside" in the hot summer months.

Guests and regulars at the Music House have included Grammy-winner Bryan Sutton, David Holt, Shane Lail of the Dillards, Chris Sharp, George Buckner, Lawrence Dillingham, and Wayne Erbsen, who is an instructor of Appalachian Culture at Warren Wilson College.

Mrs. Hyatt's Music House has garnered media attention over the years from The Times of London, The Evening News with Tom Brokaw, The Voice of America, as well as North Carolina's Our State magazine.

Groups from colleges have been a regular feature at the Music House, most prominently Brevard College and Warren Wilson College.

The weekly jams have been continuous, except for the year after Wayne Hyatt's death in 1984.

"Depending on how successful we are with fundraising, we will procure a spot just down the road," Reilly said of planned move.

Anderson Nissan, Mrs. Hyatt's immediate neighbor on Brevard Road, has signed a contract to purchase the Music House property from one of her relatives. The car dealership has offered to host the weekly jams through the end of April, when the Music House must either move or face demolition.

Around $200,000 is needed before April 30 in order to purchase a site and move the existing structure.

"Anderson Nissan has been very generous with letting the Music House stay where it is," Reilly said.

The first fundraising event will get under way Feb. 10 at the VFW Club on Leicester Highway, with live music, a raffle and a "Chili Cornbread Cook-off" from 2 to 7 p.m.

Admission is $10 per person, with children and cook-off contestants admitted free of charge.

In April, a "Battle of the Bands Unplugged" is scheduled to take place in various venues.

A motorcycle poker run is also planned, and event volunteers are still needed, Cogdill-Reilly said.

Gathering space

Two vintage hymnals rest on the stand-up piano in the Music House building, where the walls are covered with pinned photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia.

Folding chairs and church pews, upholstered in red fabric, are arranged for musicians and listeners in the garage-sized room, where a wood stove made by Wayne Hyatt dominates one corner.

Large smooth stones, brought from Barnardsville to the Music House, form the foundation walls of the building.

Cogdill-Reilly hopes to move the stones to a new location, to mimic her grandfather's construction as much as possible.

"I want to keep that intimate feeling," she said. "It's not a ‘show' — this place doesn't have the ego that says, ‘It's all about me.'"

Columbus resident Marilyn McMinn-McCredie has been a regular at Mrs. Hyatt's since she was a teenager. Now a great-grandmother, the ballad singer and storyteller believes preservation of the venue is essential to the passing on of folk customs.

She said many of these customs that don't necessarily get written down — basic customs, like manners.

"When I was a kid, my father knew of someplace like Mrs. Hyatt's Music House going on every night of the week," McMinn-McCredie said. "Now, this is all there is — there's no place for swapping melodies, lyrics and techniques.

"Folklore is the fabric of the tapestry that our life is embroidered on," she added.

McMinn-McCredie cites a fiddle player who once played a tune "on a whim" at Mrs. Hyatt's that had been passed to him from his ancestors. It was soon learned that the tune, called "The Maid of Orleans," was played at the first inauguration of George Washington.

"Fiddlers have memories like Velcro," McMinn-McCredie said. "If it washes by their ears, the music is captured."

Grey Wickel, a 13-year-old homeschooled fiddle player, has played both fiddle and banjo at Mrs. Hyatt's since 2010.

"I think it's really awesome — they have all been welcoming," said Wickel, who lives in Asheville. "(The musicians) are all about influencing young players."

Wickel said he learned some new mountain-style music at sessions over the couple of years he's been to the Music House.

Cogdill-Reilly is passionate about the role of musicians and preserving the opportunity to pass on what they know.

"It's an environment conditioned to learning and passing on tradition — here, manners count more than musicianship," she said. "The young learn from the old sitting around the music circle."

She envisions a future for the Music House that includes an educational aspect, as well as a regular music festival.

For now, it's about preserving details before they are lost forever.

"A sense of urgency has required us to move ahead quickly to archive the contents of Mrs. Hyatt's," said Cogdill-Reilly, whose grandmother has been staying in a rest home since she broke her hip last year.

Hundreds of photos, articles and assorted memorabilia are being preserved before the building is potentially lost.

McMinn-McCredie is creating a large quilt with photo transfers using snapshots of Wayne and Nelia Hyatt and of musicians who have played at the Music House. The quilt, a "tied comforter," will be a raffle prize at the Feb. 10 fundraising event.

The encroaching development around what used to be a simple home, surrounded by rolling pasture, gives the feeling of a way of life squeezed out — but there is hope, according to Cogdill-Reilly.

"There are more and more young people picking up traditional music, and there is an ever-increasing desire to preserve Western North Carolina culture," she said. "Kids that are picking this up — they don't have a place to play except for the bars."

Wickel is one of the youth who would mourn the potential passing of the landmark session venue.

<p>ASHEVILLE — Mrs. Hyatt's Music House, begun as an informal musical get-together in the 1940s, has persevered through the decades to become a world-renowned weekly gathering for bluegrass musicians.</p><p>Hosted at the Asheville home of Nelia Hyatt, now 95, the jam session venue is under threat of the wrecking ball unless funds can be raised to secure a new site and move the Music House structure.</p><p>"We are doing this for the community, to make sure my grandfather's legacy lives on," said Karen Cogdill-Reilly, the granddaughter of Wayne and Nelia Hyatt. "The music of the mountains is a pure music, and that purity will be lost if we lose a place like this."</p><p>Cogdill-Reilly and her husband, Evan Reilly, are spearheading a campaign over the next few months to save the longtime venue, with a chili cook-off and music event, a motorcycle poker run, and a battle of the bands.</p><p>A nonprofit organization has been started to help in the fight to preserve the music house, with a Facebook presence also being utilized for public awareness.</p><p>Nelia and the 'birds'</p><p>Fiddlers, banjo players and singers still surround a smiling Nelia Hyatt at the jam sessions, for which she has been known to cook up entire Sunday dinners in the past for hungry musicians at the weekly Thursday evening gatherings.</p><p>She lovingly calls musicians "birds," enjoying having them gather and make beautiful music where she has lived for so long.</p><p>Hyatt's late husband, Wayne, launched the tradition in 1947, when a group of his fellow Southern Railway workers gathered for some informal music making at the couple's home on Brevard Road.</p><p>As time went on, word got out and the place, with its family-friendly environment, became legend — a place where bluegrass luminaries and novice players alike could gather for weekly jams.</p><p>Over time, the jams became so popular that they outgrew the Hyatts' living room and in the 1970s moved to the outbuilding Wayne Hyatt constructed, to create a place to "pick outside" in the hot summer months. </p><p>Guests and regulars at the Music House have included Grammy-winner Bryan Sutton, David Holt, Shane Lail of the Dillards, Chris Sharp, George Buckner, Lawrence Dillingham, and Wayne Erbsen, who is an instructor of Appalachian Culture at Warren Wilson College. </p><p>Mrs. Hyatt's Music House has garnered media attention over the years from The Times of London, The Evening News with Tom Brokaw, The Voice of America, as well as North Carolina's Our State magazine.</p><p>Groups from colleges have been a regular feature at the Music House, most prominently Brevard College and Warren Wilson College.</p><p>The weekly jams have been continuous, except for the year after Wayne Hyatt's death in 1984.</p><p>"Depending on how successful we are with fundraising, we will procure a spot just down the road," Reilly said of planned move.</p><p>Anderson Nissan, Mrs. Hyatt's immediate neighbor on Brevard Road, has signed a contract to purchase the Music House property from one of her relatives. The car dealership has offered to host the weekly jams through the end of April, when the Music House must either move or face demolition.</p><p>Around $200,000 is needed before April 30 in order to purchase a site and move the existing structure.</p><p>"Anderson Nissan has been very generous with letting the Music House stay where it is," Reilly said. </p><p>The first fundraising event will get under way Feb. 10 at the VFW Club on Leicester Highway, with live music, a raffle and a "Chili Cornbread Cook-off" from 2 to 7 p.m. </p><p>Admission is $10 per person, with children and cook-off contestants admitted free of charge. </p><p>In April, a "Battle of the Bands Unplugged" is scheduled to take place in various venues. </p><p>A motorcycle poker run is also planned, and event volunteers are still needed, Cogdill-Reilly said.</p><p>Gathering space</p><p>Two vintage hymnals rest on the stand-up piano in the Music House building, where the walls are covered with pinned photographs, newspaper clippings and memorabilia. </p><p>Folding chairs and church pews, upholstered in red fabric, are arranged for musicians and listeners in the garage-sized room, where a wood stove made by Wayne Hyatt dominates one corner. </p><p>Large smooth stones, brought from Barnardsville to the Music House, form the foundation walls of the building. </p><p>Cogdill-Reilly hopes to move the stones to a new location, to mimic her grandfather's construction as much as possible.</p><p>"I want to keep that intimate feeling," she said. "It's not a 'show' — this place doesn't have the ego that says, 'It's all about me.'"</p><p>Columbus resident Marilyn McMinn-McCredie has been a regular at Mrs. Hyatt's since she was a teenager. Now a great-grandmother, the ballad singer and storyteller believes preservation of the venue is essential to the passing on of folk customs.</p><p>She said many of these customs that don't necessarily get written down — basic customs, like manners.</p><p>"When I was a kid, my father knew of someplace like Mrs. Hyatt's Music House going on every night of the week," McMinn-McCredie said. "Now, this is all there is — there's no place for swapping melodies, lyrics and techniques.</p><p>"Folklore is the fabric of the tapestry that our life is embroidered on," she added. </p><p>McMinn-McCredie cites a fiddle player who once played a tune "on a whim" at Mrs. Hyatt's that had been passed to him from his ancestors. It was soon learned that the tune, called "The Maid of Orleans," was played at the first inauguration of George Washington.</p><p>"Fiddlers have memories like Velcro," McMinn-McCredie said. "If it washes by their ears, the music is captured."</p><p>Grey Wickel, a 13-year-old homeschooled fiddle player, has played both fiddle and banjo at Mrs. Hyatt's since 2010.</p><p>"I think it's really awesome — they have all been welcoming," said Wickel, who lives in Asheville. "(The musicians) are all about influencing young players."</p><p>Wickel said he learned some new mountain-style music at sessions over the couple of years he's been to the Music House.</p><p>Cogdill-Reilly is passionate about the role of musicians and preserving the opportunity to pass on what they know.</p><p>"It's an environment conditioned to learning and passing on tradition — here, manners count more than musicianship," she said. "The young learn from the old sitting around the music circle." </p><p>She envisions a future for the Music House that includes an educational aspect, as well as a regular music festival.</p><p>For now, it's about preserving details before they are lost forever.</p><p>"A sense of urgency has required us to move ahead quickly to archive the contents of Mrs. Hyatt's," said Cogdill-Reilly, whose grandmother has been staying in a rest home since she broke her hip last year. </p><p>Hundreds of photos, articles and assorted memorabilia are being preserved before the building is potentially lost. </p><p>McMinn-McCredie is creating a large quilt with photo transfers using snapshots of Wayne and Nelia Hyatt and of musicians who have played at the Music House. The quilt, a "tied comforter," will be a raffle prize at the Feb. 10 fundraising event.</p><p>The encroaching development around what used to be a simple home, surrounded by rolling pasture, gives the feeling of a way of life squeezed out — but there is hope, according to Cogdill-Reilly.</p><p>"There are more and more young people picking up traditional music, and there is an ever-increasing desire to preserve Western North Carolina culture," she said. "Kids that are picking this up — they don't have a place to play except for the bars."</p><p>Wickel is one of the youth who would mourn the potential passing of the landmark session venue.</p><p>"I'm kind of devastated about the House going away," he said.</p>